An Overpowering Love
by Mysteriouslyabsent
Summary: My first Vincent and Lucrecia! Retells the events leading up to Sephiroth's birth- yeah, I'm original. COMPLETELY IGNORES DIRGE OF CERBERUS, for reasons outlined in the Author's Note... I'm planning to completely rewrite this, as I'm not happy with it.
1. Chapter 1

**An Overpowering Love**

_A/N: My first Vincent and Lucrecia. Weird, because they _are _my pair. (not always a pair_ing_, but…) So yeah. I hope I can do 'em justice, because like I say, they are my main fanfic-thing. Enjoy! Btw, this ignores DC. Why? Because it's a pile of crap is why._

… … …

"He wants to get into your pants."

Vincent didn't look up from the forms he was filling in. Lucrecia paused in the doorway, hands on hips.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Hojo," said Vincent with a shrug. "He's only being nice to you so he can get into your pants. He's had his eye on you from day one."

Lucrecia pursed her lips and took a step into the Shinra Mansion sitting room. "And I don't suppose it could be _anything _to do with the fact that I got full marks on all my practice exams, now, _could _it?"

Vincent gave another infuriating shrug, raising his palms but not looking at her. "Hey, who marks the exams? I'm telling you, Luce, he wants you. You should be careful around him."

Lucrecia strode up to Vincent, and slapped the back of his head. It was a good slap, too; his neck was already going pink and he'd nearly hit his head on the table.

"Vincent Valentine," Lucrecia started, taking a deep breath as fury rose in her chest, "has it never occurred to you that maybe, just _maybe_, I might actually be halfway decent at science? That not every man spends his whole time thinking about his next date? That the Professor and I are _scientists_?"

Vincent finally turned around. He looked vaguely bored.

"He's a scientist who isn't getting any. You should watch it."

Three hours later, and Vincent could still make out the imprint of Lucrecia's hand on his left cheek.

…

Oh, he was impossible!

Lucrecia was sitting on her bed that night, thinking about the handsome Turk.

_(Correction: handsome ABSOLUTE DICK of a Turk)_

Of all the men in Nibelheim, she'd had to fall for that one. Well, alright, he was tall, dark and strong (and we've already mentioned the handsome) but ugh! He found everything boring or suspicious, he was cynical about _everything_, he didn't have a clue how to have a good time

_(except when he's with Cheryl, or Mindy, or whoever it is this week- ugh!)_

and he was _so _condescending and _so _damn _rude_! Lucrecia hugged her pillow to her chest and screamed into it. He drove her up the wall, and made her act like a teenager with her first crush. Which was, quite frankly, embarrassing, because she was twenty-two and should know better. _Vincent _was twenty-six. He liked to lean back at the breakfast table, eyebrows raised with his infuriating 'I've seen things you could never even dream of' air, and damn him, she found it sexy as hell. And she wanted to smash the teapot over his skull.

_Why? Why do I like him? _Why?

Well, that was easy enough. When he wasn't being a pain in the arse, Vincent was her best friend

_(only friend)_

and a sort of big brother, rolled into one. He could make her cry with laughter with a sharp comment

_(or cry in any other way with a sharp comment, like last week when we had that argument and he lost his temper with me)_

and she just felt so _safe _when she was around him, it was like he was a… cuddle blanket. Yes, that was it, a deviously sexy cuddle blanket with soft brown eyes and a sharp nose and a wicked tongue.

_(don't think about his tongue… too late)_

Lucrecia gave another sob into the pillow and fell down onto her side, curling up in a foetal position. Her legs were cold below the hem of her short cotton nightdress. She wondered what Vincent would say if he could see her right now, biting a bloody pillow with desire for him. Oh, Odin, how he'd laugh!

With a half-indulgent, half-miserable sob, Lucrecia crawled under her covers and tried futilely to get to sleep.

…

Vincent lay on his mattress, listening to the sounds of the night. He was _meant _to be patrolling the mansion, but he really couldn't be bothered. Fine, Hojo was paranoid (like he even needed a Turk to begin with), that was his business, but Vincent was damned if he was missing out on sleep because of it. If they all got murdered in their beds, Vincent would write a formal apology. Or, more likely, leave the continent as fast as possible, to avoid being executed for failing his duty.

_And, speaking of failing, great job getting through to Lucrecia today!_

_Shut up._

Vincent punched his pillow with a low growl. Bahamut, that woman was dense! Well, no, she wasn't, but she was as naïve as… as… as a really naïve thing. Vincent swore. He was _supposed _to be a poet (well, he did some writing between missions, and Lucrecia would sometimes read his ramblings with an adoring expression that he couldn't get enough of). Ugh, just thinking of the lecherous way Hojo looked at her…

"_Oh, Miss Crescent, would you mind climbing up on this stool and fetching the rack of test tubes from the cupboard _so I can look up your skirt _so I can rest my weary old legs? I've been up all day!"_

"_Ah, Lucrecia, how lovely you look this morning! May I _go down on you, right here, right now _compliment you on your choice of lab coat!"_

Vincent knew he needed to do _something_, but what? Lucrecia wouldn't listen to him in a month of Sundays. And if Hojo wanted to perv on her, and she didn't mind, then _technically _it wasn't any of his business and _technically _he should just keep out of it, but then _technically _Turks didn't get socking-great-big crushes on their clients and _technically _they should not spend every waking moment thinking about them.

Damn Lucrecia.

Damn her to hell.

Vincent sat up. It was no good. He was never going to get to sleep. Maybe he _should _patrol the mansion, just for the hell of it. It'd give him something to do. _Or _he could read, he supposed, and finish that novel that'd been languishing at the bottom of his suitcase for a couple of months. Then again, there was the novel _he _was always planning to write (but never quite got around to, somehow) and the endless unwritten letters to Lucrecia.

He groaned as he realised that his thoughts had cycled back round to her again. When was he going to be able to think of something else? He hadn't slept properly in, what, months? With a grumble, Vincent slid out of bed, plodded to his light switch, flicked it on and then stared at his reflection in the mirror on his chest of drawers. The sight wasn't a pretty one. Bloodshot eyes, the nose he'd never been fond of (Lucrecia was lucky with her unobtrusive Nibel nose. Everywhere Vincent went, he got 'ooh, you're from Cosmo Canyon, aren't you? I'd recognise that hawk nose anywhere!') thin lips and masses of messy black hair. His skin was pale at the moment, a side-effect of living in Nibelheim's ridiculously cold and cloudy clime, and it made him look like a bloody vampire. Actually, now that he thought about it, he _really did _look like a vampire…

_Maybe that's why Lucrecia's not interested._

Well, not that he'd actually asked her out, or anything. Yeah, like he was stupid enough to risk his job and his life (rule #84: no screwing clients) on something like that. But he could normally tell when a woman liked him (maybe because most of them _did_) whether or not he was seriously considering her. With Lucrecia, though, everything was different.

_And why? Because she's so damn naïve, that's why, and so sharp at the same time!_

He wanted to protect her from everything, but then sometimes it felt like she knew it all already, and she was just humouring him. She came out with such cold things, sometimes, too… Vincent knew that she and her mother didn't have the, ahem, best of relationships (read: Lucrecia had been disowned aged sixteen) but some of the things she said seemed like overkill. Like when they'd been watching the news, and there had been that article about that missing girl, and Lucrecia had rolled her eyes and said,

"_She's obviously dead."_

"_You really think?"_

"_Of course she's dead. I daresay her parents killed her. Didn't you hear, they said she was a runaway, and that family isn't exactly gutter trash… She was probably a stain on their honour, or something. Mother would have done the same to me, if I hadn't got into Shinra before she could."_

"_Er… really?"_

"_Heh, Vincent, it's a different world to you, isn't it? Anyway, if you ask me, she was a pretty stupid girl, anyway. Fancy running away from home without a backup plan! You're just asking to be raped and murdered, aren't you?"_

Vincent shivered. He knew he shouldn't find her cold-hearted unflappable air such a turn-on, but there was something about her at those moments, so fragile, so beautiful, a combination of ice and fiery anger that he just wanted and wanted and wanted so hard it hurt.

He raked a hand through his hair and counted to ten, taking deep breaths. He needed to stop thinking about her. Right now.

_Yeah, 'cause that works._

Growling, Vincent threw himself back down onto the bed. Damn, if she could see him right now, she would…

_What would she do?_

Be appalled, probably. Yeah, that sounded about right. Or maybe he was being hard on himself, and she'd just find it funny. He pictured her standing in the doorway (she liked to creep up on him and stand in doorways. He wondered if it was some sort of medical condition) muffling her laughter with a palm. Then he whipped his head around _just to check._

Nobody there.

Daaaamn…

…

As Lucrecia headed down the stairs the next morning, she could already smell coffee. Sure enough, when she opened the dining room door, Vincent was sitting at the table, cup in hand, poring over another bunch of forms. She crept up behind him and slid her hands over his eyes.

"Boo," she murmured.

"I saw your reflection in the coffee pot," he replied, yawning slightly. Lucrecia glowered.

"Spoilsport." She pulled out the chair next to him and sat down, looking at the forms he was going through. "What are those?"

"The things I have to fill in if I want to lodge an official complaint," he sighed, and yawned again. "They don't make it easy."

"Complaint?" asked Lucrecia. Close-up, she thought it looked like Vincent hadn't slept. He had soft bags under his eyes and his skin was grey.

_And a very sexy grey at that!_

"Mmhmm…" Vincent mumbled. "Bahamut, I'm tired… I don't know if you've noticed, but Hojo's been taking liberties. I've had enough of it."

Lucrecia found herself tensing. "And what might that mean, exactly?"

Vincent looked at her for a long moment, and then raised an eyebrow. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Luce. No, I'm not complaining because he spends half his time staring down your top and the other half staring up your skirt, much as I'd like to."

"WHAT?"

"Much as I'd like to _complain_! Bahamut!" Vincent shook his head irritably.

"You say that a lot…" Lucrecia mused. Vincent shrugged.

"You say 'Odin' a lot. And?"

This time it was Lucrecia's turn to shrug. "Yes, but that's because Odin is a god of Nibelheim. It's a regional thing. What's your excuse?"

Vincent gave her an incredulous look. "Er… Canyon? Bahamut? Ring? Any? Bells?"

Lucrecia blinked a couple of times, and then laughed in surprise. "Wait… you're from Cosmo Canyon? I never knew! You don't have an accent…"

Vincent shrugged. "My parents were. I've lived in Kalm since I was five. And hey, are you serious? You really couldn't tell?" For some reason, he seemed ridiculously happy about this.

"How would I be able to tell?" asked Lucrecia confusedly. Vincent gave a quick grin.

"I don't know if you don't know!" Yes, he was definitely in a _very _good mood. Lucrecia felt annoyed. He was having some kind of joke at her expense, and she wasn't going to let him laugh at her!

"So, what are you complaining about, then?" she asked. That should depress him! Sure enough, Vincent's smile vanished.

_Heh._

"This and that," said Vincent, sighing. "Hojo's been abusing the contract somewhat. I'm pretty sure I didn't sign to do his dishes, or to get his laundry, or to make his breakfast."

Lucrecia burst out laughing. "So why are you doing it, then?" she said when the giggles finally subsided.

"Shinra company policy. You keep doing the work until the complaint gets processed, and then with any luck they blacklist the client and you get to go and bodyguard someone else." He grinned. Lucrecia's smile died on her lips.

"Wait… so you'll be working elsewhere, then? If it goes through, I mean?"

"That's the general idea…" Vincent gave her a funny look. "What, don't tell me you'll miss me…"

"No!" Lucrecia shook her head so hard she was sure he'd see through it in an instant. "As if! No, I'll be counting the days!" she forced another laugh and elbowed him in the ribs. He suddenly wrapped an arm around her.

"Really?" He looked serious. Lucrecia felt a blush rising on her cheeks, and avoided looking him in the eye.

"N-not really…" she mumbled. It wasn't fair, the way he could just change from jokey to serious in a moment and leave her out of step like this…

"Good. Because I will. I'll miss you, Luce. You're cute, you know."

_And, at 9.10am on April the third, let it be known that Lucrecia Crescent officially died of hopeless desire for one Vincent Valentine! DAMN YOU, VINCENT, I HATE YOUR GUTS!_

Lucrecia pressed her head to his chest and gave a muffled sob.

"Er… Luce? Are you laughing?"

Lucrecia didn't even bother to shake her head. After a while, she felt Vincent's chest rise up as he yawned again.

"Crap, I'm tired… Lucrecia, can you do me a _massive _favour and tell Hojo I, er, had to fight off bandits in the night, or something?"

"Bandits?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, good thinking!" He patted her head, and Lucrecia realised he was more asleep than awake. "I'm going to go back to bed, just need an excuse, so tell Hojo… tell Hojo… that stuff you just said. Sounded good. Night." He pushed his chair back from the table and stood (swaying slightly). Lucrecia giggled.

"Want me to tuck you in?" she joked, half-hoping he'd say yes.

"Er, yeah, sure, sounds good…" he yawned. Lucrecia wasn't sure if he was making fun of her or not. She decided not to risk it.

"I think you'll manage," she said with a fake smile, and started buttering some toast.

"Damn it… night…" Vincent mumbled. Lucrecia laughed as he left.

Oh, he was an idiot, but she loved him!

… … …

_A/N: There! Chapter 1 done! Please give me lotsa tasty concrit! I know it ends in a random place (that's my limit break, doncha know?) but hey. Bahamut, I'm tired (:P). Vincent was channelling my spirit towards the end, there. :P It's 5.27am and I am EXHAUSTED. So yeah. :P:P:P Please review, honestly, I get so lonely and I love seeing an email that says ' review alert blah blah blah'… ;) I don't get many; please change that! :P Heh, you can tell I'm tired because of the emoticon overuse…*sighs* *yawns* Right, I'm gonna go to bed now, night! xD _


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_A/N: Wow, finally got around to continuing this thing. Put simply, I'm meant to be doing about ten maths exercises right now, but, well, first TV Tropes happened and then I felt like writing and, well... As always, expect huge leaps in time and so forth; I write what interests me at the moment of writing. That's all, so let's go!_

… … …

_Two months ago_

"Everyone, Crescent. _Everyone_ is out to steal your work and then claim it as their own, or torch it because it disproves _their_ own and they want funding, or alter it so that _you _look like an imbecile. Never forget that fact. Science involves intelligence in every sense of the word, heheheh…"

Lucrecia Crescent managed a lukewarm smile at the Professor's… joke? She was never sure of whether the man was serious or not and, truth be told, she wasn't too anxious to find out.

_I was _supposed _to have Professor Gast as my mentor…_

As she stood in front of Professor Hojo's desk, Lucrecia did not doubt that he was an underappreciated genius, or that he could teach her a lot of highly useful material. It was just that she _also _did not doubt that the Professor had never come within three miles of a bottle of shampoo, had an irritatingly nasal voice, an unnerving stare, a shuffling walk and a slightly fish-like odour.

"I'll, um, keep my guard up, then," she replied, faking another smile. The Professor nodded and leaned forward in his chair.

"Exactly; we must do as we must! That's a very valuable lesson, and let me tell you, child, I'd like to see one of those untalented hacks Shinra _wanted _to send you over to teaching you _that_!" Professor Hojo pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose with some force. Lucrecia noticed that a long, greasy strand of hair had got trapped between his left eye and the glass. It was very distracting.

"They thought," the Professor continued, as Lucrecia tried to tear her eyes away from the hair, "that a woman would be useless. Do you know, Crescent, they even suggested giving you a secretarial position!"

Lucrecia felt her cheeks flame as the Professor gave a high-pitched, derisive chuckle.

_But at the certificate evening, everyone seemed so proud of me…Was it all a façade, even then? I suppose it would make some sense, if the Professor is telling the truth…'If', indeed! Ugh, you're quite disgusting, you know, presuming others share your untrustworthiness and deceptive nature. And after everything he's done for you! It's sickening. Absolutely sickening. Even now, you think that somehow, by acknowledging your faults, it negates them! Face it, Lucrecia, you're worthless and you always have been and you always will be, and if you don't behave, you'll be punished._

She bowed her head, feeling the first tears spring to her eyes. Damn it, why did she have to cry so much more easily than other people? Nobody else sobbed when they missed a train, or when someone they barely knew made a rude personal remark, but there Lucrecia would be, nose a bright red giveaway, eyes puffy slits and speech a shaking, incoherent ramble. Oh, Odin, why couldn't she control her voice when she cried? Just that one thing would be enough, just that one, tiny, little-

"Crescent?" Hojo craned his neck to look at the young apprentice, with an expression that almost resembled concern. "Have I offended you? I must say, if you're going to be in this business, you'll need a thicker skin and a stronger stomach, my dear."

Lucrecia tried to shake her head and laugh, and instead managed a hiccoughing sob. She balled her hands into fists as she tried to regulate her breathing, without success.

_Oh, Odin, I'm such a mess…_

Lucrecia had always known that she wasn't quite… well. She'd always been the odd one out, crippled with shyness because she could easily see through fake smiles. She had acquaintances but not friends, boyfriends but never lovers, and she was fully aware that this was all her fault. People scared her. You couldn't predict them in the way you could a sequence of numbers; they acted irrationally and hurt others in doing so. And other people could just greet strangers; they didn't automatically presume everybody else hated them.

_It isn't a presumption, it's a fact. Stop trying to flatter yourself. It doesn't become you._

She wasn't _stupid_. She knew that her pessimism and her frequent urges to scream or cry for little reason probably had _something _to do with the way she'd grown up, in the same way that her instinctive flinches at loud noises had 'something' to do with the way she'd grown up. On the other hand, that didn't change the fact that other people didn't get those odd little impulses. Like the time she'd taken a few more sleeping tablets than strictly necessary-

_And you even managed to f*ck that up; you were just sick, remember?_

And the time she'd stepped out of the moving chocobo carriage-

_The bruise on your knee lasted for weeks, not to mention the graze on your palm, but as attempts go, it was hardly phenomenal…_

And the time she'd decided, on a whim, to cut half her hair off with her razor-

_And then you had to cut the rest off afterwards, because you realised how bloody stupid it looked, and _then _you cried about it, didn't you? Well, that's what you get when you do these stupid things, and if you do them, what do you expect? I used to have willpower… no I didn't. I was always a coward. I'm just more aware of it now. You disgust me with your melodrama. Grow a spine or shut up or do us all a favour and die. Who'd miss you?_

And then there was the time she'd been standing on Mt Nibel, and had tried to fly.

_That went well._

"Crescent?" Professor Hojo repeated, as Lucrecia started to sob in earnest. "Crescent, there is no place for a weeping girl in my laboratory."

Lucrecia felt her stomach sink to the ground. Try as she might, she couldn't stop.

"So," the Professor continued, "I order you to get yourself upstairs, make yourself a cup of tea or whatever it is that women do to cheer up, and then, when you are quite certain that you are not going to collapse into a heap of quivering misery, come back down here and you may take some more notes. Understand?"

Lucrecia slowly nodded and managed to laugh through her tears. She still felt like a train wreck, but oh, he was _nice_!

_You don't deserve 'nice'. You don't deserve anything._

…

The next day, the Professor was mumbling in a similarly paranoid vein. Lucrecia wanted to ask him why he was suddenly so concerned about secrecy, after a good few months of quite a relaxed approach, but she didn't have the courage. Instead, she sat and dutifully took notes as Professor Hojo rambled on and on.

"And they tell Gast, 'oh, it's fine, have as much funding as you want and bring us back a prize', and yet I? _I_? I am given a dingy old mansion, a few tubes of radioactive material, and a pretty little assistant-"

"Apprentice," muttered Lucrecia, but the Professor seemed not to hear her.

"- to soften the blow! And they think I will be satisfied with that, grateful, even? Well! _Well! _Are you taking notes on this, child?"

"… Yes."

"Excellent! Now then, I want you to record this- I have had enough! Enough, I tell you! This situation must not continue! No, I will not stand for it, I simply will not, an insult, yes, an insult, no, I have my pride! Assistant! Write! Together, you and I are going to shape history, and we are going to do it starting from tomorrow, and we are going to request, nay, _demand _the best security Shinra has to offer to guard our research, and you, my child, will be part of the _revolution_!"

Lucrecia tried to keep her face impassive as Hojo wiped his feverish brow, but inside, she was calculating…

_He's frustrated and brilliant; I daresay he's onto something… and if I play my cards right, I can be at his right hand… a Doctor by twenty-three! Famed worldwide before I reach my thirtieth birthday! Oh, imagine Mother's face when she sees… Actually, let's _not _imagine that… But oh! Maybe he really is all talk, but I don't want to believe that, so I _shan't_ believe that until proven otherwise. Maybe that's silly of me, but I just don't care right now. He's a lovely person, if awkward. Well, I could write the book on awkward…_

"I look forward to it, Sir," said Lucrecia, and she gave the Professor a quick smile. He looked at her for a long moment, and then nodded.

"Indeed. I think this could be extremely fortuitous for the pair of us. Especially," he paused, "if you are ready to put science before all else. Then, I think, we will make quite a team."

"I have nothing else," Lucrecia answered truthfully. She felt herself blush under the Professor's stare; she was sure it wasn't his fault, but the way he was looking at her made her feel like a piece of meat on a butcher's slab.

"Family? Friends?" Professor Hojo asked, sounding strangely urgent. Lucrecia blinked; she didn't think he had ever asked her about her personal life before.

"… No, not as such," replied Lucrecia. A quick smile flashed across Hojo's face and then vanished again, quick as lightning. Lucrecia was certain that she had seen it, and it unnerved her, but then her more rational side kicked in.

_There are accidents in labs, especially where completely revolutionary work is mixed with a young apprentice, so I suppose it's easier on everyone if there's little paperwork to fill in should said apprentice die. Well, I'm glad I won't be a burden. In that way, at least._

"Excellent, my dear child," said the Professor, before taking her small, pale hand in his (strangely rubbery) one and giving it a quick shake. "We'll make a scientist of you yet!"

He kissed her hand.

…

"The security arrives tomorrow," announced Professor Hojo a week later, at breakfast. Lucrecia stopped buttering her toast and looked up.

"Oh?" she said. "Shinra approved your request?"

Hojo nodded feverishly. "But of _course_! They're willing to give me anything right now." He leaned forward slightly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and giving Lucrecia a sly smile. "Want to know why?"

Lucrecia felt a strange sense of foreboding as she replied, "Why?"

Hojo leaned back again and laughed his high, cackling laugh. "Because their golden boy failed them, that's why! Gast! _Gast!_ Do you know, my dear? Vanished! Completely vanished off the face of Gaia! Last seen in Cosmo Canyon, but now? Who knows? Who knows!" Hojo burst out laughing again.

Lucrecia didn't know what to say. She'd always liked Professor Gast; although she had not known him very well, he had praised her every time they _did _meet, and had come to congratulate her personally at her certificate evening. He'd come across as a very sweet, old fashioned gentleman, the opposite of the peculiar Hojo.

Because Hojo _was _peculiar.

Strange things enraged him; she had once used the word 'magic' in his presence and he had bitten her head off. Another time, she had jokingly asked what would happen if their newest area of study, the mysterious 'Jenova', turned out not to be a Cetra specimen, but just your average blonde-haired, blue-skinned woman. Hojo had coldly told her to take the rest of the day off.

Other things didn't bother him at all. She could wear her highest heels in the lab (if she didn't, she could _hear _her Mother telling her that glamour was everything and she was a failure) and the Professor didn't bat an eyelash. She supposed he wouldn't help her if she tripped and broke her neck, either, but she didn't care. She liked being taller than men; it meant they couldn't look down her top. Although she didn't think that Hojo was on the same planet, let alone thinking about her in _that _way. Fortunately.

"What sort of security?" Lucrecia asked, suddenly aware that the silence was a bit of an awkward one. "Soldiers?"

Hojo laughed at her ignorance. "Soldiers? Of course not, you ridiculous girl! Pfft, soldiers, honestly…" he broke off to laugh some more. Lucrecia held her tongue. Eventually he sighed (still snickering a little) and shook his head.

"My dear child," he said, "it would be rather impractical to have a whole army in that cramped little laboratory, would it not?"

Lucrecia blushed crimson.

_God, I'm stupid._

"No," the Professor continued, "I have requested that Shinra send a single elite unit. Have you heard of, ahem, 'Administrative Research'?"

Lucrecia shook her head.

"Excellent; they're doing their job, then. Well, basically, we'll be receiving a single bodyguard, but the best of the best. I think that's all you need to know."

Lucrecia had a suspicion that that was all the Professor had been told.

"So," Hojo announced, clapping his hands together, "tomorrow, we will meet our bodyguard, and then we will begin our work in earnest. Until then, do as you wish."

Lucrecia continued eating her toast, wondering what the bodyguard would be like.

_Six foot two with a golden tan, hopefully._

She stifled a giggle and excused herself.

… … …

_A/N: I've put this up because I'm not sure when I'm going to come back to this fic, but I know that there are some people who've been enjoying it, and I thought it'd be a bit mean to leave this not-quite-done chapter on my computer where you guys couldn't read it. Please bear in mind that when I say 'I'm not sure when', that could mean anything between a few days and forever; I'm afraid my interests leap around a lot, and I can't honestly predict when I'll feel like coming back to this. Plus I have exams. Sorry for any irritation caused; feel free to tell me off. :S_


End file.
